Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“It’s very you.” Everything in the room spoke of control and vigilance. A king who slept prepared for war, if he slept at all. But no personal items graced his personal space. No odd collections or portraits of loved ones who’d passed on. Nothing hinted at who he might have been before the crown, only who he’d been forced to become.
Sebastian rose and massaged his nape. “Tell me what happened.”
Dread and fury frothed in his tone.
“You first.” I tucked the covers more firmly around my waist. He’d taken his warmth with him. “In the water, you vanished. Gunnar said you went to the dome.”
“We start with your injuries,” he insisted. “I will hear a full accounting.” He dragged a chair to the foot of the bed and sat, resting his elbows on his knees. His gaze remained fixed on me, hot enough to blister. “Go.”
Nein, nein, nein. “I will start, ja, but not there. With advice. You are attempting to steamroll me, and I don’t like it. Stop immediately, or this conversation ends.” Just because I understood his fear and his anger didn’t mean I welcomed being subjected to it.
He inhaled slowly. Exhaled slower. The pause stretched. “My… apologies. Please tell me. What I’ve imagined isn’t great.”
I suspected that had been very tough for him to say, and I rewarded him with the information he desired. “In the beginning, Jokull was on the island. Did you know he expects you to use the convergence rune against him?”
“I did, but I appreciate the confirmation. He doesn’t think it will work.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “He thinks I’ll be drained as my mother was. But I will not.” Not one ounce of question or doubt, just a statement of fact.
I really, really wanted to lean into his confidence rather than the other man’s doubt. But I couldn’t. Not fully. “Jokull also—” I winced “—snacked on my pinky.” Speaking of, I checked my hand and heaved a sigh. Almost completely regrown.
The promised storm arrived, rage detonating across Sebastian’s entire face. “What. Else?” He shoved the question through clenched teeth. Then he gave another grated, “Please.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. I raged-out and killed everyone but the primordial. I… I’ve never done anything like that, but I must have been a sight, because he didn’t stick around to try for seconds.”
The king expelled a harsh breath. “Jokull will pay double for every pain you endured.” His hands curled, shadows flicking out and slicing into the heels of his palms. “I give you my blood oath.”
Air crackled, his words hitting like lightning. When a kraken made a blood oath, it could only be broken by death.
“I vow the same to you,” I said, and meant it. I’d never been a vengeful person, but I planned to make an exception for the kraken primordial.
“Gunnar described the carnage you left in your wake.” His tension lessened. “I do not think Jokull expected such rage from the Swan of Ashmorra.”
Giving my hair a fluff, I bragged, “I might be a dancer, but I’m also a dragon.”
A faint lift at the corner of his mouth. “Já, a species almost as strong as the kraken.”
Ha! “Kraken wish they were as strong as dragons.”
The teasing helped us both. We relaxed into the moment. Until he remembered his new “accounting.”
He worked his jaw and drummed his fingers against the chair arms, holding my gaze. “You did well, Brona. You are perfectly able to protect yourself.”
I shivered under the colossal weight of his praise. “Thank you. But it’s your turn,” I said, quieter now. “Explain what happened to you.” I required specifics.
“What Gunnar told you is true. I went to the dome. To its place of injury. The dome isn’t just one layer but three, each visible on a different plane. Think spirit, soul and body. I’m bound to each, and that is why my blood is blue.” He tapped the rune on his chest. “The mers broke a section of the first. The body. When it broke, it pulled me to the breach. I remained there until it repaired itself.”
Bound. That one word chilled me to the bone. “Say more, please.” I drew my legs into a crisscross. “That symbol etched into your chest acts as a bond between you and the dome?”
“Já. Exactly. The dome lives within me, and I live within it.”
So, if the dome fell, he fell? I did not like that. For now, I focused on the positive. “Show it to me again, please.” I batted my lashes at him. “For science.”
His lip quirked. “For science.” He gripped the neckline of his shirt and pulled it over his head.
My mind short-circuited just long enough to be dangerous. There they are. The muscles I would see in every fantasy for the rest of time.
“I do love when you leer at me,” he said, amused and smoldery at once. He tapped the rune we discussed. “When you’re done, look here.”